This present disclosure relates to an image processing system and methods.
In various applications, it is desirable to collect persistent video (i.e., multiple image sequences) of a target from a moving imaging platform (e.g., airborne or space-based) that can easily be viewed, and/or interpreted, via displays. This may be especially important for military personnel, and/or for other persons, using portable devices that may have limited processing capabilities. Existing persistent video sensors generally stay fixed to (or focus on) a single point, for instance, on the ground, while the moving imaging platform is in motion. The moving imaging platform captures the images and transmits them to a desired location over a transmission channel.
The ability to accurately replicate a stream of images collected by the moving imaging platform is generally limited by the bandwidth of the transmission channel. For example, airborne and space based imaging platforms can typically collect gigabits per second of imagery, while the bandwidth of the transmission channel is generally limited to megabits per second.
In order to facilitate the transmission of imagery collected by the moving imaging platform, the stream of images may be compressed to reduce irrelevance and redundancy in the image data. The compressed stream of images is transmitted over the communication channel and, then, decompressed to recreate the original stream of images. However, existing compression-decompression systems may introduce compression errors. Furthermore, they may not recreate the original imagery with great efficiency.